IBM 8677 manual What your BladeCenter unit offers, IBM Enterprise X-Architecture technology

Notices and statements used in this book

The caution and danger statements that appear in this book are also in the multilingual Safety Information book, which is on the IBM BladeCenter Documentation CD. Each statement is numbered for reference to the corresponding statement in the Safety Information book.

The following notices and statements are used in the documentation:

vNote: These notices provide important tips, guidance, or advice.

vImportant: These notices provide information or advice that might help you avoid inconvenient or problem situations.

vAttention: These notices indicate possible damage to programs, devices, or data. An attention notice is placed just before the instruction or situation in which damage could occur.

vCaution: These statements indicate situations that can be potentially hazardous to you. A caution statement is placed just before the description of a potentially hazardous procedure step or situation.

vDanger: These statements indicate situations that can be potentially lethal or extremely hazardous to you. A danger statement is placed just before the description of a potentially lethal or extremely hazardous procedure step or situation.

What your BladeCenter unit offers

The design of your BladeCenter unit takes advantage of advancements in server technology. It provides up to 14 functionally separate servers and their shared resources in a single center. Your BladeCenter unit combines:

vIBM Enterprise X-Architecture technology

IBM Enterprise X-Architecture technology leverages proven innovative IBM technologies to build powerful, scalable, reliable Intel-processor-based servers. Enterprise X-Architecture technology includes features such as Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA), scalability, and Real Time Diagnostics.

vExpansion capabilities

You can add blade servers to the BladeCenter unit as needed, up to a maximum of 14 blade servers.

Note: When any blade server or option is in blade bay 7 through 14, power modules must be present in power bays 1 and 2, and power modules must be present in power bays 3 and 4.

Some blade servers have connectors for options that add capabilities to the blade server, such as an I/O expansion card to add a network interface, or a storage expansion unit to add SCSI hard disk drives.

vHot-swap capabilities

The front bays on the BladeCenter unit are hot-swap blade bays; the rear bays on the BladeCenter unit are hot-swap module bays. You can add, remove, or replace blade servers or management, I/O, power, or blower modules in hot-swap bays without removing power from the BladeCenter unit.

Attention: To maintain proper system cooling, each unoccupied bay must contain a filler blade or filler module.

Chapter 1. Introduction 7